The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1887-10-05

| saw the inside Of haunt Of sin save az
| when ton years ago, with commissioner 81
| police and detective and two elders ofny
church, / explored these cities by mid
night, not out of curiosity, but that might
! in pulpit discourse set before the people
| the poverty and the horrors Of UNDER
ground city life. Yet, though never was
| intoxicated for an instant, and never com
mitted one act Of dissoluteness, restrained
| only by the grace of God, without which
restraint would have gone headlong to
the bottom Of infamy, hare had so much
| fun that / don't believe there is man on
the planet In the present timewho has had
more.
| Hear II, men and boys, women and girls,
| all the fun is Oh the side " right Sin may
seem attractive, but it s. deathful, and,
| like the manchineeI, q tree whose dews
are poisonous. The anly genuine
happiness is Ia an honest Christian
life. The Chippewa, wanting 20 see God,
hlackens his face with charcoal and
fasts till he has vision Of what he
calls God. My God, can see best when !
take my hat off and let the sunshine blaze
in my face, and after a reasonable break
fast. He is not d God Of blackness and star
xation, but oflight and plentitude, and the
glory of the monday sun is Egyptian
midnight compared to il.
There they go--two brothers. The enc
was converted year ago in church, one
Sunday morning during prayer. or SER
mon, or hymn. No one knew IL at the
time. The persons on either side of him
suspected nothing, but in that young
mans soul this process went on:
ssLord, here | am, young man amid the
temptations of city life, and am afraid to
v.,c olf ha ma nu
dian and my help: save me from making
the mistake that some of my comrades are
making, and save me now"
| And quicker than a flash God rolled
| Heaven into his soul. He Is just as jolly
! as he used to be, is just as brilliant as he
| used to be. He can strike a ball or catch
one as easily as before he was converted.
With gun or fishing-rod in this summer
vacation he was just as skillful as before.
| The world Is brighter to him than ever
| He appreciates pictures, music, innocent
hiIarity, social life, good jokes, and has
| plenty of fun, frst-class fun, glorious
fun.
| But his brother is going down hill. In
the morning his head aches from the
champagne debauch. Everybody sees he
| is in rapid descent. What cares he for
right or decency, or the honor Of his
u.
depleted in health, cast down
in spirits, the typhoid fever strikes him IN
the smallest room on the fourth story of
ffth-rate boarding house, cursing God
and calling for his mother, and fighting
back demons from his dying pillow, which
is besweated and torn to rags. He plunges
out of this world with the shrek of q
destroyed spirit
Alas for that kind of fun, 1t ia re.
morse 1t is despair 1t is blackness OF
darkness. 1t is woe amending and long
reverberating, and crushing as though all
the mountains of all continents rolled on
him in one avalanche. NV soul, stand
back from such fun. Young man there is
no fun in shipwrecking your character,
no fun in disgracing your fathers
name. There is no fun in breaking your
mothers heart. There is no fun in the
physical pangs of the dissoluto. There Is
no fun in the profligate's death-bed.
There is no fun in an undone eternity.
Paracelsus, out of the ashes Of burnt
rose, said he could recreate the rose, but
he failed in the alchemic undertaking,
and the roseate life once burned down in
sin can never again be made to blossom.
oh. this plumb limo of the everlasting
right. God will throw it over all our lives
to show us our moral reflections.
God will throw it over all churches
to show whether they are doing useful
work or are attending instances of idle
ness and pretense He will throw that
plumb line over all nations to demons trats
whether their laws are lust or cruel their
rulers good or bad, their ambitions holy
or infamous He threw that plumb line
over the Spanish monarchy of other days,
and what became of her? Ask the splint. /
cred hulks of her overthrown armada.
He threw that plumb line over French
Imperialism. and what was the result:
Ask the ruins of the Tuileries, and the
fallen column of the Place Vendome, and
the grave trenches of Sedan, and the blood
of revolutions at different times rolling
through the Champs Elysees He threw
that plumb line over ancient Rome,
and what became of the realm
Of the Caesars. Ask her war eagles,
with beaks duled and wings broken, flung
helpless into the Tiber. He threw it over
the Assyrian Empire of a thousand wears
the thrones of Semiramus and Sardana-
palus and Shalmaneser. of twentv-seyen
victorious expeditions, the cities OF Pho.
nicia kneeling to the scepter, and all the
world blanched in the presence. What
became of all the grandeur. Ask the
fallen palaces Of Khorsabad and the
corpses of 1856, 900 soldiery slain by the an
gel of the Lord In one night. and the AS /
syrian sculptures Of the worlds museums, |
all that now remains OF that splendor be- !
foro which nations staggered and
crouched.
God is now throwing that plumb-line
over this American Republic, and it is a .
solemn time with this Nation, and whether
we keep his Sabbaths or dishonor them.
whether righteousness or iniauity domi-
nate. whether we are Christians or infidel.
whether we fulfill our mission or refuse ii.
whether we are for g cd or against him we'll
decide whether we shall as u nation go on
in higher and higher career or go down /
in the same grave where Babylon and
Nineyeh and ThebeI and Assyria ara